RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces assaulted residents alongside activists and supporters of the Khan al-Ahmar Bedouin village east of Jerusalem in the central occupied West Bank on Wednesday.

Activists from the Wall and Settlement Resistance Committee and others have been stationed in the village for weeks, as a form of protest against the planned demolition of Khan al-Ahmar and the displacement of its people.

Israeli forces and military vehicles had surrounded the Khan al-Ahmar in the earlier morning hours on Wednesday.

The land on which the Bedouin village is built is entirely owned by and registered at the Land Registration for the residents of the nearby village of Anata.

Israeli forces have been attempting to displace the residents of the Bedouin village, inhabited by 181 people, half of whom are children.

Earlier this week, Israeli forces raided Khan al-Ahmar, in preparation to demolish the village which would displace more than 35 Palestinian families, as part of an Israeli plan to expand the nearby Kfar Adummim settlement.

Although international humanitarian law prohibits the demolition of the village and illegal confiscation of private property, Israeli forces continue their planned expansion by forcing evictions and violating basic human rights of the people.

Sources added that Israeli police deployed near the Bedouin village blocked the main road. Buses were also called by the Israeli authorities to transfer the residents to the village of al-Eizariya, east of Jerusalem.

The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that 35 people were injured and treated in the field, while 4 were sent to hospitals for treatment.

Israel has been constantly trying to uproot Bedouin communities from the east of Jerusalem area to allow settlement expansion in the area, which would later turn the entire eastern part of the West Bank into a settlement zone.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned "the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by the occupation authorities in the designated areas (C) and in the occupied city of Jerusalem and its environs."

According to Ynet website, critics said it is nearly impossible to obtain a construction permit from Israel, and that the village’s demolition and the displacement of its 181 residents is a clear plot to build new illegal Israeli settlements.

A spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Liz Throssell, released a statement in which she called upon Israel not to proceed with their demolition plans of Khan al-Ahmar village and that the removal of its residents by force, as well as the destruction of private property is a violation of international law.